1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for supplying a uniform amount of a loose food material which is used as a filling material in a pie dough coating. In particular, to an apparatus for supplying to pie dough, at regular intervals, a loose and relatively fragile food material, such as a filling material for Eccles cakes.
2. Prior Art
A food which is commonly referred to as Eccles cakes uses a dough material comprising multiple layers of dough, and fat such as butter, which are alternately disposed and folded upon themselves. A filling is placed on top of the dough, and another layer of folded dough is then placed upon the filling to cover it, and the coated filling is then stamped out by a stamp cutter to take a circular form, and is then baked in an oven to be completed as a cake.
A filling which is inserted into such a cake comprises butter, sugar, a fruit such as an apple from which the skin and the core are removed, the peels of a fruit, raisins, spices such as cloves or nutmeg, and/or juice such as lemon juice, orange juice, or the like.
Such a filling can be molded into a desired form because it is adhesive and easily crushed. Since such a material tends to become chunky and its density in the hopper is not uniform, it is difficult for an apparatus to supply a uniform amount of such a material.
Accordingly, when an Eccles cake is produced, a baker manually supplies a preselected amount of the filling on top of the dough, then folds the dough to enclose the filling, stamping out a circular dough enclosing the filling and finally baking the circular dough. However, these steps are performed manually and the number of cakes that can be produced is limited. Therefore, such a process has not been suitable for mass production.
Eccles cakes have not been popular in Japan. However, because of the recent trend demanding higher quality cake breads, and consumer's preferences for greater variety, a demand has arisen for foods such as Eccles cakes, and thus there is a need to satisfy such demands.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,012,682 discloses a combination roll-making machine is which dough is divided and molded. In this apparatus, dough in the hopper is propelled toward a rotating drum which is mounted on the open bottom of the hopper. The dough is then introduced into one of the pockets provided on the periphery of the drum. In each pocket a piston is provided. Since the piston advances to the periphery of the drum when the drum is rotated, the dough is pressed against the molder band supported adjacent the drum to mold the dough in the pocket into a form. Finally, the formed dough is ejected from the apparatus.
However, if the apparatus is used for dividing a loose material such as one used for a filling for Eccles cakes, a portion of the material which extrudes from the pocket drops through the space between the drum and the molder band when the piston advances and the material is made to progress through the space between the drum and the molding band. Since the material is shaped in this space, the form of the material output is not uniform, and often breaks the form due to the friction. Further, as stated above, such a material tends to become chunky and has air pockets. Thus the density of the material introduced into the pocket is not uniform. Therefore, each portion of the loose material divided by the apparatus does not have the same amount of material.